What to plant if any with black walnut?

[WhitePineJunky]

Basically have a clean slate after forest fire, have a spot I want to put black walnut in, which I am as I have got a order on 300 for next spring, it's a spot that will be along the bottom part of a ridge line, revives good sunlight, catch a lot of water, but we'll drained soil and not swamp. From my understanding black walnut poisons other trees nearby it? If true are there any trees that would not be much effected and grow along well with it? Oaks? 

Thanks

[Crusarius]

Do you hope to harvest them and make money in the future? I feel by the time they are ready to be harvested the walnut boom will be over.

That will leave you with a very large area with soil that would not be good for anything else.

I don't know the answer to your question and really hope someone else chimes in I am just curious more than anything.

One thing I have noticed is that even if it is no longer a top commodity Maple has always been a steady guarantee. At least it has around me.

[WhitePineJunky]

Do you hope to harvest them and make money in the future? I feel by the time they are ready to be harvested the walnut boom will be over.

That will leave you with a very large area with soil that would not be good for anything else.

I don't know the answer to your question and really hope someone else chimes in I am just curious more than anything.

One thing I have noticed is that even if it is no longer a top commodity Maple has always been a steady guarantee. At least it has around me.

No plans in my life time for it, I expect to be around another 40 hopefully, but the thought crosses my mind that the next or generation thereafter will have some nice trees to harvest. Which maple particularly? I got a order on sugar maple but need to wait for 2025 for those. Red maple comes up naturally everywhere here though

[Crusarius]

The maple that is popular around here is always the clear white stuff. I have no idea what variety that is, but I know it has always been a safe bet for sale ability.

[btulloh]

At worst, a black walnut may affect some things but only to the dripline.  They don't have a huge impact on neighboring trees. I've grown corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, etc. right next to black walnut trees. I've removed a few and planted various vegetables where they stood and even had roots left in the ground. No effect.  

When they're not crowded they grow very fast (central Virginia).  A ten year old walnut around here is probably going to be 20 or more feet tall with a full crown, as long as they're not being dominated by other trees.  

[Southside]

I will try to get some pictures of them, I am not kidding when I say they grow like weeds here.  Grass and other trees right up to the trunk, zero issues.  I have to brush hog them down in places.  Bring a shovel, come and get some. 

[beenthere]

Plant them in good bottom land, ... land that would grow good ag crops such as corn. Deep soil, and not rocky, gravelly, or dry ground.

[SwampDonkey]

I find them around here in the yard coming up every once in awhile. I had to take some down a few years ago, but they produced a lot of nuts over the years and the squirrels planted them all over the place. Just found one this summer in a  flower bed, it grew over 3 feet this summer and the stem is only the size of your pinky finger. Like Southside says, they are like weeds. I have never had them kill grass, flowers or other trees. Used to have a butternut beside them, Arthur destroyed the butternut. Butternut, since Arthur came through, have been suffering from the canker, never had it before that in my area. But I watched a lot of mature butternut die off or look very sick around here since. There was once hope there was some resistance, I think that hope has fizzled. Most mature butternut on land that has active wood harvesting was cut in the last 30 years anyway. What wasn't cut wasn't easy to get at or didn't have good form. But it regenerated very well on those cuts. The best butternut grew in with other hardwoods on moist loam ground where it had nice straight limb free trunks for 30 feet. Associated hardwoods here were white ash, basswood, yellow birch,  and sugar maple. And butternut has the same natural herbicide, juglone, in it's roots.

[WhitePineJunky]

Since I am going to plant them 10x10 , I would like a 2nd tree to go with them for a couple reasons, a little tree diversity, if they don't do good maybe the other will, and I just wanna try a couple
Others out. Say if every 2nd planting was walnut, and in between was something say shag bark hickory, if all the walnut died, I'd still be left with 20' spacing which isn't so bad for a hardwood and I wouldn't be at total loss. Where you guys are, what are common trees that grow along with walnut? Does shag bark hickory tend to? It's close to my area in its natural range, being in Maine, but NS especially south NS is more mild in the winter could be a good one

[WhitePineJunky]

Keeping soil ph in mind before the fire the typical ph was 4.8-5.2, acidic, but as fire is known to raise ph by up to 40% post forest fire, for awhile, that'll put me in the range of what black walnut likes which is 6-7.  While I think shagbark is also in that same range, maybe I should go with a oak that is in the 5-6 ph range just in case it effect the walnut after the ph drops again over couple decades, maybe less(I'm not sure how long it takes). Red oak is native here, pin oak isn't but also likes acidic soil. Decisions decisions 

[Ron Scott]

Use the Soil Survey for your area as a guide for best species to plant etc.

[WhitePineJunky]

Use the Soil Survey for your area as a guide for best species to plant etc.

Yes sir that would be red, white pine, red maple, sugar maple, red oak etc, which I am doing(with the pine anyway, natural regen of the others), but I this dedicated acre of so is more of a experiment/ bit of fun to have I guess. Could very well not work out well for me but atleast the spot is already cleared and no work to prep as it was burned to a crisp, just young saplings were there 

[SwampDonkey]

White oak (true white oak, not burr) will grow this far north, I have a 40 year old one from New Hampshire. Burr oak is native to New Brunswick and I have found a couple in my county. But most grows around Grand Lake. That area gets a lot of floods.

[WhitePineJunky]

White oak (true white oak, not burr) will grow this far north, I have a 40 year old one from New Hampshire. Burr oak is native to New Brunswick and I have found a couple in my county. But most grows around Grand Lake. That area gets a lot of floods.

I planted a burr oak here and a couple pin oaks, I like the look of the pin oaks! 

[beenthere]

Pic of a look through the walnut field I planted in spring '71.
All the seedlings grew, planted on 10x10 spacing. Not all seedlings are created equal and looking back, I should have discarded all the runts. Instead, I put them all in the ground. The runts continued to be runts and smaller trees. Lesson learned but many years later. 

Kept the 3 acre field weed-free for the first 12 years. The trees suffered what I have called sunburn on the SW side about 2' from ground up. Think it was due to late winter warming of that side of the tree, then freezing at night. Not bad, but made me think if I'd planted a cedar tree on that SW facing side that it may have shaded enough to stop the thawing during sunny days. Maybe in my next lifetime.  :D

Have thinned some of the smaller trees out after seeing the better trees push up in height. Some trees have yielded to competition of the larger trees in the field, and died. 

[Southside]

What kind of grass is that growing underneath? 

[beenthere]

Do not know my grasses. Nothing ever planted. 
Once a year I mow (brush hog) between the trees. It's whatever grows, but bluegrass is what is predominant here. 

[WhitePineJunky]

Pic of a look through the walnut field I planted in spring '71.
All the seedlings grew, planted on 10x10 spacing. Not all seedlings are created equal and looking back, I should have discarded all the runts. Instead, I put them all in the ground. The runts continued to be runts and smaller trees. Lesson learned but many years later.

Kept the 3 acre field weed-free for the first 12 years. The trees suffered what I have called sunburn on the SW side about 2' from ground up. Think it was due to late winter warming of that side of the tree, then freezing at night. Not bad, but made me think if I'd planted a cedar tree on that SW facing side that it may have shaded enough to stop the thawing during sunny days. Maybe in my next lifetime.  :D

Have thinned some of the smaller trees out after seeing the better trees push up in height. Some trees have yielded to competition of the larger trees in the field, and died.

Runts lives matter too! lol 
Looks good! Plans to thin them out again ? 

[Treeflea24]

what are common trees that grow along with walnut? Does shag bark hickory tend to?

Black Walnut is the dominant species on our property (southern MI).
My observations on what coexists with it after ~30 years of natural regeneration:
In the higher-lying areas the companion trees that seem to do well with it are (in order of density) black cherry, honey locust, hackberry, northern red oak,  eastern red cedar, bur oak, elm, basswood,.
In the lower-lying areas, the BW is found alongside (in order) elm, buckeye, ash snags, honey locust, sycamore, cottonwood, boxelder, basswood, bur and swamp white oak.
We do have shag bark and bitternut hickory here too, but interestingly they are not found near BW in any cases around here. They seem to be at the highest, driest sites. Could just be the way it regenerated, I dont know if I'd read too much into it.
The only thing that I've found that seems to suffer when plated too-near the BW is eastern white pine, and even then it hasnt been consistently  bad in my observations.
I've planted many blue and norway spruce nearby to BW and they seem to do well on the higher sites.

*I'm not a forester.

[thecfarm]

3 acre field? You planted some walnut. Takes time to keep all that weed free.

[beenthere]

The weed-free was only possible with the 10x10 spacing and an 8' tandem JD disk that fit between the rows, lengthwise and crosswise.

Now a 5' rotary brush mower fits through on a 45° angle neatly between the trees.